Combination fan and heater



Nov; 18 1 E. P. COLE COMBINAT ION FAN AND HEATER Filed June v,23 1921 fmrdf? 610k;

Patented Nov. 18, 1924.

I .element which is arranged 'Heaters,

UNITED STATES v1,515,731 PATENT OFFICE.

COMBINATION FAN up nnn'rnn.

Application filed .Tune 23, 1921. Serial No. 479,771.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LEDWARD P. Conn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicage, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Combination Fans and of which the following is a specification.

My invention has reference more particularly to the arrangement of a heating element in front of a fan so that the "fan may optionally serve as a blower to circulate air heated by said element or as a reflector to concentrate and project heat rays emitted by said element, these two functions being accomplished without impairing the usefulness of the fan for circulating air for cool-, ing purposes.

Heaters have been heretofore provided comprising a heating element placed in front of a reflector which serves to redirect and concentrate the heat rays from the element, and heating elements have also been placed in the outlet of a fan housing to afford a current of heated air, but these features have not heretofore been combined in a single unit with the heating element arranged so that it may optionally serve to afford concentrated rays of heat or a current of heated air. Moreover neither feature has been combined with an ordinary electric fan such as commonly used iii offices and homes so that the fan co-operates with the heating element to afford a convenient and efficient heater without impairing the utility of the fan for cooling purposes. V

The principal objects of my invention are to provide a heating device which may be optionally used to furnish heat by reflection or circulation; 'to utilize a fan in connection with a heating element to optionally afford a current of air heated by said element or concentrate and project the heat rays from said element; to provide an ordinary portable electric fan such as commonly used in offices and homes with a heating the fan and supply a current of heated air to concentrate and project rays of heat from said element; to construct my invention as .an attachment which may be readily applied to any ordinary electric fan without requiring a special fan construction to accommodate same; to afford electrical connections and circuit controlling means applicable to to cooperate with fleeting surface.

the ordinary electric fan whereby the fan and heating element may be selectively operated; and in general to provide a simple, inexpensive and, convenient device embodying the three functions of cooling by air circulation, heating by air circulation and heating -by reflection of heat rays.

On the drawings:

Fig. is a front view of an electric fan with my invention applied thereto.

ig. 2, a side view thereof with portions of the fan, heating element, and fan guard in section. Fi 3, a view partly diagrammatic, showing outside connections of the heating element and fan with circuit wires whereby they may be operated independently or simultaneously, and

Fig. 4, a diagram 'of the wiring connecgions when the latter are made in the fan ase.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numeral 1 indicates an electric motor and 2 the base of an electric fan of the usual type which is customarily provided with a rheostat 3 in the base controlled by a lever 4 for regulating the-operation of the motor 1. The armature shaft 5 projects beyond one of the bearings 6 so that a fan may be mounted thereon and the housing of the motor has a plurality of arms 8 detachably secured thereto by screws 23 or other suitable fastenings and extend outwardly therefrom so as to support a fan guard. The fans used in connection with electric fans of this character are usually composed of four blades which are spaced a considerable dis tance apart so that there are wide spaces between the blades, and as the fan in my device not only serves as an air propellerbut also as a heat reflector, I use a fan such as shown at 7 in the drawings made of a metal such as brass, having high efficiency as a heat reflector and composed of blades arranged close together so as to eliminate circumferential gaps between the blades and thus afford a substantially continuous re- Moreover, the large num-' ber of blades renders it possible to use less pitch to the blades and the angularity of the blades is thus lessened to such an extent that the desired direction of heat reflection is maintained. These blades may also be radially curved, if desired, as shown in Fig. 2 to form a centrally dished or concave reetails of the heater connections and" flector which tends to restrict the 3 spread of the heat rays and concentrate same within a limited field.

which radiate outwardly from a central ring 26 and are bent rearwardly and connected to a supporting ring 27 The ring 27 is usually secured to the outer ends of the arms 8 in a detachable manner, as for example, by turning in the outer ends of the arms 8 to form clamps in which the ring 27 is secured by screws 24:.

The guard which I use is wider than the ones commonly employed so as to accommodate a heating element between the fan 7 and the outer face of the guard. The heating element is in the form of a circular resistance coil, as shown at 12, arranged substantially concentric with the fan and carried by a number of insulating spaces 11 which are supported by brackets 10 extending inwardly from the radial wires of the fan guard. These brackets may be conveniently formed by bending portions of the radial guard Wires inwardly as shown. The ends of the heating element 12 extend into a connector 13 to which a twin wire condoctor 14: leads and the ends of the twin wires are connected therein to the corresponding ends of the heating element 12.

The conductor 14 may be led into the base 2 of the fan as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and connected through a switch 15 on the fan base to the twin conductor or lamp cord 28 ahead of the rheostat 3, so that the fan motor and heating element 12 are independently controlled by the rheostat 3 and switch 15 respectively.

This heating device is adapted to be furnished as an attachment which may be applied-to the usual electric fan without difliculty by merely removing the fan guard and fan, which is usually furnished, and substituting the special guard with heating element and the special fan which I employ. In such cases it is desirable that the wiring connections may be made without the necessity of making any alterations or changes within the base 2 and to this end I use a two-way plug 16 which has a threaded end 17 fitting in an ordinary electric socket and two branches 18 and 19 to receive the usual attachment plugs, one of these branches be ing provided with a switch 20 for controlling the circuit leading therefrom. The twin conductor 14 leading fromthe heating coil instead of being brought into the base 2 is rovided with an attachment plug 21 an this attachment plug engaged in the switch controlled branch- 18 so that the current to the heating coil may be turned on and oil at will, and the attachment plug 22 on the end of the conductor through which current is supplied to the motor 1 is engaged in the branch 19, and as this conductor leads through the rheostat 3 in the base of the fan, the fan motor may be started and stopped and the speed of the fan controlled by operation of the rheostat lever 4.

The heating device does not noticeably alter the appearance of the fan nor impair the operation of the latter for its ordinary use as a cooling means, and the heating coil may be used simultaneously with the operation of the fan to provide a blast of heated air or it can be used while'the fan is inoperative to afford heat by reflection. When the fan is in operation it has a cooling effect on the coil so that the temperature of the latter is maintained at a point of high efliciency for heating the current of air, whereas when the fan is inoperative the heating element is heated to a luminous condition in which it is most efficient for heating by reflection.

The fan with which the device is used may be of either the oscillating or non-oscillating types and the standard which holds the motor at an elevation above the base usually has a hinged joint 29 adjusted by a thumb screw 30 or similar means so that the fan may be tilted and this is a convenience in connection with my invention as it permits the current of heated air or rays of reflected heat to be directed wherever required.

While I have shown and described my invention in a preferred form Iain aware that various changes and modifications ma be made without departing from the principles of my invention, the scope of which is to be determined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination of a fan, a motor for rotating same, and a heating element mounted in front of the fan, said fan being composed of a circular series of radially extending blades havin the trailing edge of each blade substantially in front of the leading edge of the following blade so as to present a substantially unbroken front for reflecting the heat rays emanating from the heating element. 7

2. The combination of a motor, a heating element, and a combination fan and reflector interposed between the heating element and the motor and rotatable by the latter, said reflector and fan comprising a circular disc slitted radially to form contiguous blades, said blades being correspondingly twisted at an angle to the plane of the disc to form an air impeller.

8. In a combined fan and heater, the combination of a fan, a motor for rotating same, and a heating element in front of the fan, said fan being composed of a series of blades inclined transversely to form a blower and inclined longitudinally to form a concentrating reflector for the rays of heat emanating from the heating element.

4. In a device of the class described the combination of a centrally dished fan, a heating element mounted in front of the concave face of the fan, and a wire guard 'en-' closing the fanand heating element;

5. In a device of the class. described the combinationof a heating element, a fan adjacent the heating element and adapted to circulate air through the heating element, said fan having the blades thereof contiguously arranged to present a substantially continuous front for reflecting the heat from the heating element.

6. The combination with a heating element, of a fan spaced therefrom and comprising a series of impeller blades bent longitudinally toward the heating element to afford a concentrating reflector for the heat rays emanating from the heating element.

7. The combination with a heating element, of a concave reflector facing the heating element and composed of a series of contiguous radially extending impeller blades, and a motor for rotating the reflector.

8. The combination of a heating element,

a concave reflector facing the heating element so as to concentrate and project the heat rays emanating from the heating element, said reflector being adapted for rotation so as to force a draft of air through the heating element. A I

'9. In a device of the class described, the combination of a heating element, and means adjacent the heating element for concentrating and projecting the rays of heat emanating from the heating element in a given direction and for impelling a draft of air through the heating element in the same direction.-

10. In a device of thecclass described, the combination of a concave reflector, means for rotating same, a circular heating element in front of and concentric with the reflector' and positioned substantially midway between the marginal edge of the reflector and the axis thereof, said reflector being composed of a series of blades arranged at an inclination to force a current of air EDWARD P. COLE. 

